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Democratic senators, several of whom are themselves avid traders in healthcare stocks, were right to roast HHS secretary designee Dr. Tom Price for his unseemly plunges into individual healthcare equities. ... Conflicts of interest are a major issue in healthcare and on Capitol Hill. But trying to tie Price's stock trading to some kind of quid pro quo or campaign contribution misses the much larger problem with his nomination. Since getting elected to Congress in 2004, the former orthopedic surgeon has championed policies that further the interests of entrepreneurial surgeons in particular and unbridled fee-for-service medicine in general. Once installed at HHS, he will have the power to eliminate the CMS' most promising move toward value-based reimbursement—mandatory bundled payments. (Merrill Goozner, 1/21)

Tom Price faced off with the Senate during his recent confirmation hearing for the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump cabinet. But he's been laying the groundwork for what he sees as the future of health care since 2015. A repeal of the Affordable Care Act has been front and center since the presidential campaign began. But many of the planned changes could affect an even bigger audience - Medicare and Medicaid enrollees. (Jennifer Fitzgerald, 1/23)

Aetna claimed this summer that it was pulling out of all but four of the 15 states where it was providing Obamacare individual insurance because of a business decision — it was simply losing too much money on the Obamacare exchanges. Now a federal judge has ruled that that was a rank falsehood. In fact, says Judge John D. Bates, Aetna made its decision at least partially in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit blocking its proposed $37-billion merger with Humana. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/23)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new regulations this month that give it broad authority to quarantine Americans. The rules outline for the first time how the federal government can restrict interstate travel during a health crisis, and they establish in-house oversight of whether someone should be detained, without providing a clear and direct path to challenge a quarantine order in federal court. (Kyle Edwards, Wendy Parmet and Scott Burris, 1/23)

We have an opportunity this year to begin to fix a long-simmering problem in Virginia. That problem is our underfunded, inconsistent behavioral health system. Virginia has a patchwork system, made up of state-run institutional settings and locally run behavioral health clinics. This has long led to disparities in care in different areas of the state, as different Community Services Boards (CSBs) offer different services. As a result, access to treatment varies by geography. (Secretary of Health and Human Resources William Hazel, 1/23)

In the sad geography of America’s opioid-overdose crisis, Ohio is at the center of the map. In 2015, 2,700 of its people died from prescription and illicit opioids, a number far higher than any other state and one that shot up by 28 percent in one year. In response, Gov. John Kasich signed a bill this month to expand access to the treatment drug naloxone, therapy, and social supports. (Andrew L. Yarrow, 1/21)

The meteoric rise in opioid painkiller abuse may come as a surprise to some, but the problem is not lost on our elected officials, who are fighting back with new legislation on prescribing practices, expanded use of medication-assisted treatment, and easier access to naloxone, a drug that immediately reverses an opioid overdose. Gov. Doug Ducey and other Arizona leaders also are at the forefront of combating the problem by requiring doctors to check a statewide database before prescribing addictive pain medications, stepping up education of opioid abuse in our community, and offering a free training course for doctors on how to prescribe opioid drugs. The good news is that these strategies are beginning to work: Arizona has now dropped to 15th from sixth in the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States. (Peggy Chase and Will Humble, 1/23)

First and foremost, the WHO needs more effective political leadership to regain trust. It is the only organization charged exclusively with speaking for public health and for health care workers around the world, with a mandate that trumps the interests of individual countries. At a time when health budgets around the world are under increasing pressure, the new director-general must strengthen the case for investing in improving health outcomes. (Ed Whiting, 1/23)